Problem of Evil question.
I was listening to a debate about the problem of evil, and had a thought. The main answer to the problem of evil I hear is that God permits evils for some greater good that we may not be aware of. My question is this:
If I happen to come across a child being molested, would I be justified in not acting? God would have known I wouldn't act which leads me to think my not acting is necessary for the greater good to take place.
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Evil exists to build character, or rather, demonstrate your character. In your scenario, that's where free will comes in and shows what kind of a person you are. As long as you don't join in, you should make it up to purgatory... unless you laughed at that, in which case... I have some bad news for you ;) If I happen to come across a child being molested, would I be justified in not acting? God would have known I wouldn't act which leads me to think my not acting is necessary for the greater good to take place. If you knew everything and knew that not stopping it was for the greater good then it is okay to not to stop it. Of course, you do not know that there will be a positive outcome from the child being molested, therefore the moral thing for you is to stop it from happening. God can appreciate the greater good in allowing the child to be molested and for him to do this, with the knowledge he has, is a moral act. 1
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I'd say it's like this. If you loose a rabid, hungry dog at a park of slow kids, you can be pretty certain the dog will kill some kids, so without omnipotence it can be safely assumed you knew the dog would kill some kids if you did that. With that knowledge you still loosed the dog at the park, without actually forcing it to kill. Who'd be to blame for the kids' deaths? In the trial most people would probably vote you, and that the dog be put down. |
